The Simulation Argument with the phrase “Are you Living in a Computer Simulation?” is one area of study which has nearly always interested me, because I believe there is always a significant probability that we as are living in a computer simulation.

If the simulation hypothesis is true, you exist in a virtual reality simulated in a computer built by an advanced civilization. Your brain, too, is merely a part of that simulation.

1. What is the Simulation argument?
The Simulation argument was set forth in a paper published in 2003. A draft of that paper had previously been circulated for a couple of years.

The shows that at least one of the following propositions is true: (1) the human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a posthuman stage; (2) any posthuman civilization is extremely unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of their evolutionary history (or variations thereof); (3) we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation. It follows that the belief that there is a significant chance that we will one day become posthumans who run ancestor-simulations is false, unless we are currently living in a simulation. A number of other consequences of this result are also discussed.

The argument has attracted a considerable amount of attention, among scientists and philosophers as well as in the media.

References:

N. Bostrom, Are You Living in a Computer Simulation? Philosophical Quarterly, 2003, Vol. 53, No. 211, pp. 243-255. URL:  http://www.simulation-argument.com/simulation.html.

Via: simulation-argument.com